Company members

team

Lizzi Kew RossArtistic Director

Lizzi trained at Roehampton University and London Contemporary Dance Theatre School graduating with a B.Ed and M.A in choreography. Her credits include choreographing musicals for The Arts Theatre in Cambridge, commissions from Yorkshire Arts with mime artist Geoffrey Stevenson and Cabaret at the Hilton Hotel London. Lizzi is involved in training dancers at Laban, The Evening School, at The Place, Birkbeck College, Arts Ed and Guildhall opera students. Recently, she taught at Ruskin Art School in Oxford, Taiwan University of the Arts and led dance projects for a drug charity in Hong Kong.

Lizzi was part of the British team for the Open Cov project led by Leeds University with Opera North, Sibelius Academy, Shanghai Theatre Academy and Bregnenz Festival, making work and researching narrative in opera within different cultural contexts.

In the Moment, directed by Lizzi and Douglas Finch, saw 350 dancers and musicians, both professionals, alumni and Trinity Laban students in a 3 day site specific event in Greenwich - TimeOut Critics Choice. Harmony of the Spheres was the first dance/music event held at The Royal Observatory with 150 performers. Earle Brown′s score, December 1952 commissioned by Chelsea Space, was re-realized with 16 dancers and 7 musicians for Move - Choreographing You exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in January 2011; and Lizzi′s latest project, Without Warning, was premiered at Laban Theatre Autumn 2010, and hopes to tour in the next 2 years.

Martin CollinsProducer

Martin Collins MA, MSc began dancing with the Splinters dance company before training in theatre at Lancaster University, Dance Theatre & Dance Science at Trinity Laban. He has worked as a performer with dance and theatre companies in the UK including Levantes Dance Theatre, Darren Ellis Dance, Ballet Boyz, Dukes theatre Company, Marlow Theatre, The Grange Park Opera, English National Opera, Tate Modern and the Nigel Charnock Company. He has also performed in a number of different feature films for the UK and Japan, TV and site-specific works commissioned by the BBC, RM Europe, and Independent British Film.

Martin has produced work for a number of prestigious national and international platforms including British Dance Edition, Sadler’s Wells, South Bank, the Royal Festival Hall, Roubaix and Burgos festivals. This has been done in collaboration with companies such as Lost Dog, Random Dance, Company of Elders, Royal Ballet School, Shobana Jeyasing, Henri Oguike Dance Company, Darren Ellis Dance, Pina Bausch Company, and Sarah Linstra.

Martin is currently the Company Director for Darren Ellis Dance, Artstrust (Production Company), and managing the Centre for Advanced Training at Trinity Laban.

Mary Ann HushlakDramaturg & Associate Artist

Mary Ann is a writer and dance, performance dramaturg. Originally from Canada, she came to the UK to do a PhD on the subject of political language. Instead, she became immersed in performance art, worked with Augusto Boal, in particular his Image Theatre, and, later, trained as a screenwriter. She combined the screen side with writing prose, her own short stories and text for artists making artist books.

It was freelance writing of treatments, and hence the ability to write proposals, that brought her back to performance, live art and dance. Wanting an extra specificity of vocabulary for dance and movement, she did a range of choreology workshops with Rosemary Brandt. Now, fusing film, ‘story’, dramatic structure, artist books and installation art as well as a theatrical and dance vocabulary, she has a cross-media dance/performance dramaturgy practice.

With Lizzi Kew Ross & Co, she was the dramaturg for Without Warning, including curating the accompanying events. Currently, using the live performance as source material, she is taking the lead with Alpha-ville (digital developers and producers) to create Without Warning: the artist book as an app. Also currently, she is developing The Discussion Project with and for the company.

She is the Co-President of the dramaturgs’ network (d’n) and is a trustee for the theatre company Cardboard Citizens.

Mark Bromley - Designer

Mark specialises in designing and making printed arts material. Commissions have include work for: The Old Vic Tunnels, Tristan Bates Theatre, Southwark Playhouse and Trinity Laban, as well as choreographer Hagit Yakira, producer Tom Johanson and Independent Productions. For designs and photography projects visit MARKBROMLEY.NET

Natasha Lohan - Composer & Associate Artist

Fay Patterson - Lighting Designer

Ruth Elder - Composer, Arranger & Violinist

Ruth’s main composition commissions to date have been for dance works by Sarah Dowling and Lizzi Kew Ross. Not only working as a composer but also performing within these works Ruth uses improvisatory techniques around her musical material to connect with the dance. Her work has featured at the Royal Opera House ‘Draft Works’ series, Dublin Dance Festival, and at Two Temple Place for Dance United’s site specific projects. Other dance & music collaborations as a performer include Conor Doyle’s ‘Crow in Eden‘ & ‘Bow and Arrow‘ at The Place Theatre 2010 &11, and Felix Barrett & Tom Morris’ production of Tom Stoppard’s ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Favour’ at the National Theatre 2009 &10 featuring Southbank Sinfonia and Punch Drunk. Aside from dance Ruth has performed with bands and artists including Muse, Madness, Imogen Heap, Josh Groban, Pink, Il Divo, Toddla T and many more, performing at the O2 Arena, Glastonbury, Earls Court, and on BBC Later...with Jools Holland. She has arranged music for Ian Broudie (The Lightening Seeds), Jono Harrison, Cato Music (Muse), Orquestra Phenomenal, and worked with Comedy String Quartet Graffiti Classics, Urban Soul Orchestra, Trafalgar Sinfonia, The English Mozart Ensemble, and many other orchestras and chamber groups.

Una Palliser - Musician

Irish born Úna Palliser won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London, during which time she was awarded to Wolfson Trust Award, Royal Philharmonia Scholarship and was string finalist in RTE Musician of the Future before graduating with 1st class honours in performance. In 2011 Úna was invite by Colombian artist Shakira to join her as the featured solo violinist on a 14 month arena world tour. She works with a number of classical and world music influenced groups including her balkan-classical duo Balkish with accordionist Marko Hatlak. She frequently tours Europe as guest soloist with BBC World Music Award winners Terrafolk, with whom she had a number 1 radio hit in Slovenia as their singer and violinist. Úna regularly performs as solo violinist with Leona Lewis and Otis Taylor, and has toured and recorded with Bueno Vista Social Club, Moby, Dionne Warwick, The Killers, Take That, Michael Bublé, Robbie Williams, George Michael, Gnarls Barkley, Paloma Faith, Jeff Beck and a number of film soundtracks. She has appeared as soloist with Manchester Camerata Orchestra and Slovenian Symbolic Orchestra. She has featured as actor musician in a number of theatre shows and operas including Pagliacci and Piazzolla's Maria De Buenos Aires. Unacurrently features on the Specsavers advert singing her arrangement of Mo Ghile Mear.

Henry Montes - Dancer

Henry Montes is a freelance dance maker, performer and teacher. He presently dances with Liz Roche Company in Ireland . He has worked with Tanztheater Reinhild Hoffmann and Susanne Linke Company in Germany and in NYC with Keely Garfield, Jonathon Appels, Amy Greenfield, KJ Holmes.

Resident in the UK since 1991 he has performed with Jonathan Burrows, Charles Linehan, Rosemary Butcher, Kerstie Simson, Joan Davis. He was a member of Siobhan Davies Dance from 1998- 2009 and was awarded the 2003 Critics Circle National Dance Award for Outstanding Male Artist.

He performed in the early work of Trisha Brown for Pioneers of the Downtown Scene at the Barbican Art Gallery, London 2011 and in Tino Sehgal’s These Associations at Tate Modern in 2012. His film Out Look can be seen on: www.darwinoriginals.co.uk/HenryMontes.html

Alice Sara - DancerAlice Sara graduated from LCDS with a first class BA(HONS) degree, and became a member of 4D (LCDS post-graduate performance company, now ‘Edge’), completing her MA in 2000. On graduating, she became a core member of Seven Sisters Group, most recently working as performer and choreographic assistant for their project ‘Like a Fish Out of Water’ created in partnership with English National Ballet. She has performed the solo ‘NEWS’ by Deborah Hay, at various arts festivals, after participating in The Solo Commissioning Project, and has worked on many projects as performer and rehearsal director for film-maker and choreographer Deborah Tiso. She has also performed with choreographers Tom Dale, Maresa Von Stockert, Andreja Rauch and others.She has become increasingly interested in the relationship of performer and viewer which she has explored in her collaboration with dance artist, Melanie Clarke, and has been collaborating for a decade with Architecture Theorist, Rachel Sara, and postgraduate students at the University of the West of England, investigating the idea of working ‘between’ Architecture and Dance. Alice has been a member of faculty at Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance, teaching release-based technique, improvisation and performance for the last ten years.

Fred Gehrig - Dancer

Fred was born in Hamburg (1967), arrived in London in 1989 and stayed for 5 consecutive years when he concentrated on a career as a dancer working for Kim Brandstrup, Aletta Colins, Mathew Bourne (creation of ‘The Nutcracker’) and London Contemporary Dance Theatre. From 1994 he lived six years abroad, dancing for Ballet Preljocaj (F), Carte Blanche (Norway), Alias (Geneva), Nomads (CH)and BILL T Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Cie in N.Y.C. where he was also a company member of Mathew Bourne’s first Broadway Season with Swanlake (1998/99).

Back in Britain, from the year 2000, he danced for RADC, Random Dance/Wayne McGregor, Michael Clark, DV8/Lloyd Newson, Frauke Requard and has performed in various productions on the stages of Britain’s four leading Opera houses: Opera North, ENO, ROH and Glyndbourne. Fred has completed 5 collaborative projects with site specific dance maker Susanne Thomas (‘7sisters’), the last one being produced by English National Ballet for the Olympics in 2012 in which he danced, co-choreographed and assisted. Over the years, Fred has participated as a performer in productions of Britain’s major Opera Houses (Opera North, ENO, ROH and Glyndebourne). He is part of the collective ‘Tanztheater Global Berlin’ with whom he has co-created 4 video dance productions, the past three taking place on Cap Verdien Island/Africa. In 2012 performed with and for Turner Price winner Martin Creed at the modern Institute of Art, Chicago and alongside Brad Pitt in WWZ. In 2013 he performed in the Tate Tanks in collaboration with artist Carlos Motta and director Matthias Sperling as well as staring in the 2013/14 season of Punch Drunk’s London production ‘the drowned man’ in the role of’ the producer’.

Megan Saunders - Dancer

Megan trained at Laban and with Transitions Dance Company. Megan’s work in dance and movement as an artist, performer and teacher often involves working in varied contexts and with an expanded notion of what choreography can be. She has created work for gallery spaces and performed in the work of other artists in galleries such as Tate Modern and The Hayward. She has also worked in outdoor spaces and theatres for artists such as Stephen Koplowitz and Layla Rosa. Educational work included facilitation of projects for artists such Lea Anderson, Richard Alston and Luca Silvestrini and she has choreographed dance films as learning resources for the BBC.

Simon Wehrli - Dancer

Simon Wehrli (Switzerland, 1983) graduated at Swiss Scuola Teatro Dimitri (BA in the Arts of physical theatre) and deepened after that his knowledge in contemporary dance at LABAN London (UK). Since then he is touring internationally as part of the movement theatre collective Spettatori and with the dance improvisation group 50collective. As a dancer, actor and musician he works for choreographers in London and New York and creates his own pieces in Switzerland. Since 2010 he is regularly involved in the work of David Zambrano.